Squabbles endangering Syria peace talks

Both sides disagree on who will represent opposition groups

By Anne Barnard, NEW YORK TIMES

January 20, 2016

Photo: JACQUELYN MARTIN, Stringer

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry﻿, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrive in Zurich on Wednesday for talks on the Syria peace process﻿.﻿ Peace talks are scheduled to begin Monday, but there have been disagreements on which delegates will have a seat at the talks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry﻿, left, and Russian Foreign...

BEIRUT - The top diplomats from Russia and the United States met in Zurich on Wednesday to reconcile problems threatening to postpone or even scuttle international talks scheduled for next week to end the Syria war.

But the meeting, between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, adjourned with no clarity from the participants on precisely when or even whether those talks, tentatively set for Monday, would proceed.

The main problem revolves around precisely who will represent the range of Arab and Western-backed opposition in the talks with the government of President Bashar Assad of Syria, who is supported by Russia and Iran in the nearly 5-year-old conflict.

Assad more confident

Translator

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.

Further dimming the prospects for convening the meeting in coming days are indications that Assad, emboldened by heavy Russian airstrikes against his enemies, is feeling more confident of his position and therefore less inclined to negotiate. U.S. officials have expressed concern about that possibility.

An opposition council, known as the Syrian High Negotiations Committee, announced that its team would be led by a rebel fighter, Asaad al-Zoubi, a former Syrian army colonel who defected and now leads U.S.-backed insurgents in southern Syria. The team also will include Mohammad Alloush, a representative of the Army of Islam, a large Islamist faction powerful in the rebel-held outskirts of Damascus.

The appointments add credibility to the influence of the opposition's negotiating team compared with the last round of talks two years ago. Then, the Syrian government argued that the opposition delegates held no sway with insurgents on the battlefield.

But the inclusion of fighters on the opposition's list of negotiators also was likely to face strong objections from Assad and the Russians, who view such figures as terrorists and are inclined to blacklist them.

"Not all goes smoothly," a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said in remarks carried on the official Tass news agency. "Tough disagreements persist on who should be included in the 'white' and 'black' lists."

Start of talks in doubt

The United Nations, which is mediating the talks, has yet to send out invitations, and officials have said they will not do so until the world powers arrive at an agreement.

The special United Nations envoy for the Syria conflict, Staffan de Mistura, has been ambiguous about any progress. Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, de Mistura told the BBC he was optimistic the talks could be scheduled in January. But he also told CNN that they might not start on Monday.

The meeting comes as the Syrian government, backed by Russian airstrikes, has made several gains against anti-government insurgents. Analysts say this is making the government less eager to negotiate, even as Islamic State militants gain ground in Deir al-Zour in the country's far east.

The United States has signaled that it is looking for common ground with Russia and is ready to soften its insistence that Assad step down before any political transition can commence. But the U.S. allies - Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar - have not embraced that compromise. Nor have the Syrian opposition politicians and insurgents that they support.

The opposition delegates were announced by Riad Hijab, who leads the opposition council that met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, late last year in an attempt to unite behind common principles and negotiators.

He has maintained that it makes little sense to negotiate a political settlement before sieges are lifted and humanitarian aid can be delivered.

Opposition delegates

The Russians want to add more opposition names to the negotiations - ones more to their liking, which means more supportive of the Assad government. On Monday, though, Hijab declared that the council's delegates would not attend the talks if any other set of opposition delegates were included.

George Sabra, a Christian dissident who also was named to the council's negotiating team, told the opposition channel Orient TV that "no country or side" could interfere with Syrians' right "to propose whoever they want to represent them, and no one has the authority to put forward any names other than the council."

Yet other opposition figures are also seeking to attend, some with the backing of Russia.

Among them are Kadri Jamil, who recently served in Assad's cabinet and is seen by many antigovernment Syrians as a tolerated "house opposition" figure, and a longtime dissident, Haytham Manaa, who served many years in Syrian prisons but long was skeptical of the armed insurgency. They also include representatives of the Kurdish groups that have established a semiautonomous zone in northeast Syria.